Arcade Fire first appeared on the indie scene in 2004 with the release of their hit album Funeral. The album took many people by surprise and since then they’ve become a renowned award-winning, genre-defining international band.
Their newest album, The Suburbs, relates partly like a story to their original album Funeral. The album’s theme relates around the idea of coming back to their home, the suburbs, and dealing with the way the neighbourhood, originally the prefix to four of the songs from their original album, has changed. The album cover represents this really well.
At the forefront of the album is a view of the back of an old car, the styling of the windows and seats giving an impression of an ‘80s North American saloon car. The vehicle looks over a bit of grass as well as bushes, a tree and a house. The house looks run down with scuffs in the panelling covering the roof; possibly representing the decay of the suburbs as talked about in the album. The entire cover looks worn, giving the impression of an old photograph but also helping to enforce the idea of decay which the dead bush, old car and rusty house portray.
The name of the band is displayed in the top right corner of the cover, out the way. The font styling used for the typography represents a traditional old style of writing. The text is displayed in an arrow shape which is meant to make it look like two overlapping roofs, also an iconic image of North American suburbia.
Pictured below is one of the alternate covers. The picture is a greyscale image of a tree and it’s leaves with the same typography as the main cover but with much larger text, its centred to draw attention. The slanted text gives the impression of roofs in the suburbs.
